11 thoughts on “The 1st fossil fuel free country

  1. Michael White

    Yes good one Ven. Cook Islands too are well on the way. We’re going for solar with diesel back-up. The situation was the same: very high costs to transport diesel fuel from New Zealand to Rarotonga, and then a long delay waiting for a ship to come to the Outer Atolls, which are a very long way away. We’ve always turned the generator off overnight (no power from 2300-0600), very easy. A further consideration is we are not cash economies, so people get very little cash to pay any bills.

    Rakahanga Atoll got its solar array in September 2014; Pukapuka just done (they were due to finish Xmas week ~ not heard if online yet). Tongareva has been postponed 4 times so far, we’ve agreed amongst all the landowners the sites in both villages. Perhaps ours happens this year. Rarotonga also is setting up a large solar array by the airport. The plan is for most if not all power to be from renewables by 2020. I don’t think we can lose fossil fuels altogether as shipping will need diesel (we have one sail-trader from Hawai’i but that means winds have to be blowing suitably). Also planes are not yet solar powered, maybe soon? Mike

  2. Janos Post author

    Thanks a lot for the link, Ven. It’s really a heartwarming story, including those what you mentioned, Mike. Good examples to demonstrate that small communities where human and business greed have smaller chances to rule the world, it is possible to make changes. I was very pleased to read these news. If planes will be solar powered though, I’m afraid the number of tourists will increase sharply on these remote places. Janos

  3. Michael White

    I’d also been thinking Janos, that these small developing nations are certainly showing themselves to be world leaders, even if none of the industrial nations listen. They pollute & destroy, we use wisely and conserve 🙂 Rarotonga really should look at electric road transport. It could be done as the island is only 32 km circumference ::: solar power charging facilities.

  4. Janos Post author

    I agree. I think there should be a ‘bottom-up’ direction of organization among the nations following this ‘self-conscious’ way. There have been examples for that already among Pacific Island, related to climate change, and that should be broadened. Just another simple point on our ‘wish-list’. 🙂 Without being disturbed by industrialized ‘intelligence’…

  5. Michael White

    Yes 🙂 I can’t remember if I ever said, but at the Copenhagen climate meeting (2009?) there was a huge mosaic map of the world with countries named. The many Pacific Islanders who attended said ‘why are none of our countries on the map?’ So they wrote their island names on papers and stuck then to the map: we had our own journailst there too, so this went right across the Pacific. 🙂

  6. Venkatasamy Rama Krishna

    Lggett’s views make sense Mike. But it appears that oil means power, both to politicians and corporations, and both are thirsty for power.
    It is true that smaller, and poorer nations, are making progress in moving away from fossil fuel. Obviously to expect a total replacement is far, but if at least the reduction could be substantial then that would make a difference.

  7. Venkatasamy Rama Krishna

    And even more:
    Billionaire oilman Harold Hamm, referred to by Bloomberg as ?the founding father of the U.S. shale boom? who helped drive the discovery and development of North Dakota?s oil-heavy Bakken shale formation, lost half his fortune in the last three months??.
    ?Will this industry slow down? Certainly,? Hamm told Bloomberg. ?Nobody?s going to go out there and drill areas, exploration areas and other areas, at a loss. They?ll pull back and won?t drill it until the price recovers. That?s the way it ought to be. This is a bump in the road, a correction, an adjustment that we?re going through right now.?
    http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/02/fracking-bust-harold-hamm/

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